Rangel wants to redistribute wealth

The Democrats are at their games again. For all the talk about needing to balance the budget or pay for the war, Representative Charles Rangel (D – New York) wants to add a 4% surtax on those with incomes over $150,000. What does he want to do with this surplus? Expand the child tax credit for those not earning enough to pay taxes at all and expand the “earned income” tax credit. This is robbery plain and simple. It is not the job of government to steal money from people to give it to other people.

Upper-income families, however, would pay for that repeal with a 4% surtax on incomes above $150,000 for a single earner or incomes above $200,000 for a married couple. That surtax would grow to 4.6% for incomes above $500,000.

The surtax will also make possible an expansion of the earned income tax credit, an increase in the standard deduction, and an increase in the value of the child tax credit for those earning too little to owe federal income taxes.

Part of this bill fixes the alternative minimum tax but the provision for re-distribution of wealth makes this a non-starter for me. Rather than expanding the earned income credit, which is neither earned or a credit against taxes paid, and the child tax credit for those who don’t pay taxes those programs should be ended. It is not fair to people who have worked their tails off to become high wage earners to have their money stolen and given to others.